Pakistani Golden Eggs of Rotten Islam

Pakistan was founded to secure the socio-economic interests of
Muslims. Islamic factor was only in the mind of common Muslim mob
of that age. The founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who was wine
drinker and pork eater himself, said on August 11, 1947:

You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free
to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this
State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or
creed—that has nothing to do with the business of the State...
We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all
citizens and equal citizens of one State... I think we should keep
that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in due
course Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to
be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the
personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as
citizens of the State.

But after his death, Pakistan was hijacked by the Mullahs, who
were fiercely against its formation. But still the upper elite class
is totally secular. Especially the PPP (Pakistan people Party)
leadership is totally secular. Even the Marxists in Pakistan also
have their pressure group in the party. Pakistan is standing now at
two extremes: at one end, there are the extremist Mullahs and at the
other, the seculars and freethinkers. The majority of Pakistani
people are under the influence of liberal people.
Perhaps, this is the reason that Pakistan is still standing. There
are Islamic political parties, which uses Quran as their speeches
and wants to get vote in the name of Islam. But, in spite of ISI
dictator support, they never get enough seats to make government in
Pakistan. And never will they be able to do so.

There are many intellectuals in Pakistan, who support human
rights, try to reform Islam, criticize the mullahs and try to make
Pakistan a secular democracy.

Javed ahmad Ghamdi:

I have written a whole
article on the reformation movement of javed ahmad ghamdi. He is
not only a reformist Islamic scholar, but also have a lot of
contribution towards the promotion of democracy and liberal culture. Ghamdi has provided a base to the secular people of Pakistan to
stand with arguments in favor of democracy and secularism against
the Mullahs.

Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy:

Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, a Professor of Nuclear Physics at the Quaid-e-Azam
University since 1973, received the Abdus Salam Prize for
mathematics in 1984 and has authored 65 scientific research papers. He
is the Chairman of Mashal, a non-profit organization, which
publishes books in Urdu on women’s rights, education, environmental
issues, philosophy, and progressives thought.

Dr. Hoodbhoy has written and spoken extensively on topics ranging
from science in Islam to education issues in Pakistan and nuclear
disarmament. He produced a 13-part documentary series in Urdu for
Pakistan Television on critical issues in education, and two series
aimed at popularizing science. He is the author of
Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for
Rationality, now available in five languages.

In his book, Dr. Hoodbhoy strongly criticizes Imam Ghazali for
undermining rational thinking via indoctrination of religious dogma. He
even criticizes Caliph Omer for burning the Library of Alexandria.

Due to these criticisms of his, he has been declared an agent of RAW
(India) by
many pseudo-intellectuals of Pakistan. His articles can be accessed
here and
here.

Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa Agha

Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa Agha is an independent security analyst and
strategic affairs columnist from Pakistan. She received her doctorate
from King's College London in 1996 and has worked on issues varying
from military technology, defense decision-making, nuclear
deterrence, arms procurement, and arms production to civil-military
relations in South Asia. She often appears at Pakistani TV
channels. She is a supporter of nuclear disarmament, secular democracy
and Indian federation. She is a fierce critique of ISI monopoly in
Pakistan. She has written a book
Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy, in which she
criticize ISI for supporting the Taliban and the economic monopoly of Pakistan army.
She often writes at Dawn. She criticizes the Government for giving
support
to the Taliban. Due to her anti-Taliban thinking and writing against
the “holy” army of Pakistan, she is also declared as “traitor”.

Irfan Husain

Irfan Husain is one of Pakistan's top newspaper columnists. His latest
columns on occupation, terrorism and counter-terrorism is once
again deeply thought provoking. He covers almost all aspects of social
and religious issue. Recently, he has strongly criticizes the government
for giving free hands to the Taliban. He lately criticized Imran Khan
for calling Darwin's Evolution a “half baked” theory (see Imran
Khan vs Charles Darwin). His articles can be accessed
here.

Younis sheikh

Dr. Younus Shaikh is a Pakistani medical doctor, human rights
activist, rationalist and freethinker. In October 2000, he was charged with blasphemy
over expressing his views about the circumcision of Prophet Muhammad
in a lecture. He said that the Prophet did not become a Muslim until
the age of 40 (i.e., until he supposedly had received the first
message from God) and that the Prophet’s parents had been
non-Muslims, because they died before Islam existed. He said that
the Prophet was unlikely to have shaved his armpits and pubic hair, since the custom was
probably unknown to his tribe at the time. A group of his students reported him to a local group, called the
Committee for the Protection of the Finality of the Prophet, which
has a history of lodging blasphemy charges against religious
minorities. The group immediately reported Dr Younis Shaikh to the
authority and he was
arrested. Dr Shaikh maintained that his words had been misunderstood.

After spending 11 months in the Central Jail in Rawalpindi, he
was sentenced to death. He spent greater than two more years
in jail before the verdict was over turned
in November 2003 as a result of intense international pressure,
orchestrated by the International Humanist and Ethical Union
(IHEU) and Amnesty International. After acquittal, he left to
Europe to save his life from mob justice, if released in Pakistan. He has written
many articles. He wrote his whole story
here.